Dib Dennis and Cordell Dennis dressed as
cowboys in a Dallas Studio photo

GEORGE "DIB" DENNIS RELATES STORIES OF UNIQUE PAST
The Suburban News - Sept 12, 1963

Farmers Branch celebrates now it's Pioneer Days events as part of the City's 121 years in existence. Many revealing tales of the past century have come to light as a result, furnished by Farmers Branch colorful senior citizens.

George D. Dennis, in an interview, was most helpful in bringing into focus Farmers Branch as it was in the old days, as Mr. Dennis himself, and his peers, knew and lived it.

Dennis, is hale and hearty with a kind personality.. a white crew-cut tops the head of this six and one-half foot tall gentleman. This gum-chewing native of Willow Grove, Tennessee, released his reason for his  good health, one being good food. His wife, whom he wed in 1912, fixed him Mother's Oats cereal each morning until her death, and he still eats this meal almost every morning.

Dennis, who believes in big breakfasts, used to eat each day for breakfast five slices of bacon, two eggs, and six slices of bread as well. Besides enjoying huge meals to keep himself healthy, Dennis gets sufficient rest and walks a great deal  .. an advocate of long walks. Dennis thinks more people should walk a lot. He had his first examination by a doctor about a year ago and had his first shot only five years ago. Dennis, who prefers working to loafing, and has had no serious illnesses in his life, reported that "I can lift today about as much as I could when I was 21."

Dennis' Farmers Branch boyhood was always a daily experience of excitement. One day at the Bill Good drugstore, which stood at Denton Road and Valley View, a drummer (salesman) came in and bought a cigar. The ends of cigars were clipped off then. Young Dennis, who was in the store when the drummer was, clipped the end off a cigar and accidentally clipped off a finger.

In 1901, when Dennis was only twelve, one Frank Eden was found shot to death on a country lane. The body, when found, was brought to town for examination.. the killing which remains a mystery today as to who shot Eden, "created a lot of excitement in Farmers Branch" and it was reported the  the first murder in Farmers Branch. Dennis didn't want to view the body and its bullet-riddled head, but forced himself to do so; "I was there (at the examination), just a kid, and scared to death .. first time I've ever seen anything like that."  Eden's nephew, Hollis Eden, later came to Farmers Branch and had a nice grave made for his uncle. [Keenan Cemetery]

Dennis' schooldays were quite unique. Dennis went to old Midway School (30 by 30 feet) in Farmers Branch where many thrilling episodes occurred. Boys would shoot paper wads and always carried slingshots to class and dunked girl's pigtails in ink wells.. when an aged teacher was replaced at Midway by a "young-like teacher (Miss Marley)" who was also, Dennis said, "a nice-looking lady," the boys set up a welcome for the new instructor. A tack was placed in her chair one day and when the teacher sat down on it, "she jumped up and went to hollering." Bad students were punished by being made to kneel down and face the wall with their hands behind their heads. In back of the schoolhouse was the outhouse. On the north side of it the girls played and on the south the boys played. There was a knothole in the receptacle and Dennis and Hoyt Brown were always stuffing the hole with paper and lighting a match to it, then smothering the little fire with their coats to put it out. One day the fire got out  of hand and burned the little house down .. Dennis took off around the north side and escaped as the teacher charged around the south side to put out the fire.  Hoyt Brown didn't implicate Dennis in the action but took all the blame himself, and was whipped before being ordered to rebuild the outhouse ... at building time, Dennis showed up to help. "If we (students) didn't have five or six fights a week, we knew something was wrong ... oh it was rough up  there .. a teacher had so many pupils she couldn't handle them," remarked Dennis.

Dennis recalled that Farmers Branch had a changing population: "some stayed a little while, some stayed along while." Most of the Farmers Branch citizens were farmers and there were three cotton gins in the area at one time or another. The fist was at Ben Johnson's Creek, where the worthless cotton seed was dumped near the creek...when the creek rose, away washed the cotton seed and the problem of what to do with it. Then there was Walt Good's gin, where the farmers would carry their bales, that sometimes weighted 200 pounds each to the cotton press. Still the third cotton gin was one that once stood on Elder Street.

Dennis' father, Jimmy Dennis, was from Tennessee, and was a farmer by trade ... in 1889, when young Dennis was two, the elder Dennis brought his wife and nine children to Texas. "My daddy was a good provider," said Dennis, "..was well though of of by those who knew him and gained a neighborhood of friends." Jimmy Dennis' Farmers Branch farm was just three miles east and one mile west of this city and was called the Bright Farm. Simple farming methods were in vogue then, but the farmers still got the job done. Jimmy Dennis helped build ... financially and physically ... the Presbyterian Church in Farmers Branch. Jimmy Dennis, tortured by bad health, died at 43 years of age in Farmers Branch.

George Dennis followed in father Dennis' footsteps as a farmer. Dennis loved his farm at Dennis Road and Farmers Branch Lane ... once where Dennis' wagon got stuck in the mud on Dennis Road, he was able to have the road graded and fixed and as a result, county officials had the road named for him.

"I've hauled corn to Dallas." Dennis stated, "when it brought 15-20 cents a bushel, and had to be weighed on the Goodnight scaled by the Courthouse. City slickers (those in the city who tried to "slick" or cheat an unsuspecting victim out of  his heard-earned money or goods) were looked upon with apprehension and caution by farmers. Once when a small - bodied man in Dallas offered Dennis 25 cents a bushel for the corn, Dennis was suspicious, thinking the man didn't have that much money. The man persuaded Dennis to take the corn to a big house, where the man lived .. the corn was unloaded by a Negro man, and Dennis was paid the right amount and treated to dinner. This was ironic in that most "city" people weren't trusted to keep their word, However the farmers knew that they could trust each other. On one occasion, a Mr. Bryant offered his farm for sale at $3600. Dennis' father took a sack from a wall peg and on the table counted out $3600 to loan to Perry. Perry purchased the Bryant Farm and later faithfully repaid the $3600.

Dennis remembered that one Saturday his father had bough a cotton planter and a week later 26 people came out to see the "new invention." Dennis and 17 others formed a club to kill beef at the old Jim Good place and deliver it to who ever needed any meat and formed an 18 man ice club to take turns picking up ice for each other.

The first "hoorah" grass (a weed-type grass), Dennis said, in Farmers Branch came up on his father's farm ... it was an area curiosity and everyone wondered just what it was for  four years, when they found out, it was then well entrenched among the corn and hard to get rid of. There were no cold spells after January and Dennis noted that "we all seemed to be enjoying life ... we were just crazy enough," Dennis joked "to be happy."

"I remember when the bus ran, I was working on the thresher" ... after one payday "I had a $12 check and $8 in money and rode in the bus propped up leisurely in a seat,. When Dennis got off at the depot, he noticed he had lost his purse on the bus ... the next time the bus came by, Dennis had the driver check for the purse, which was found beneath the seat. When Dennis, who remembers also some free train rides, had been propped up in the bus, his purse had fallen below the seat.

"I was a trustee up here at school for 23 years ... I would get a thrill out of kids and would call them some name besides their own" to get their attention," said Dennis. Dennis himself has acquired some interesting nicknames through the years .. he is known by many as "Dib."  Joe Fields, a road commissioner for ten years in Farmers Branch, who was a good friends of Dennis, called him "Squirrel Top."  Lloyd Cook called him "Dibdobber," and Roy Lee called him "Pete," while Bill Denton labeled Dennis "Gibbs."

About 40 children would rush to pick cotton and gather crops for Dennis on his farm in their spare time. The boys from six to sixteen, did a good job for 20 years or more. Dennis feels they would help him out anytime in case of trouble.